George Whitefield and his dear friend, John Wesley, lived during a time following great religious upheaval in England. The official church landscape had oscillated between Catholic and Protestant. Then the Protestants had subdivided again and again. Both men yearned for
the dividing walls to come down.
Wesley said it this way: “Would to God that all the party names and unscriptural phrases and forms which have divided the Christian world were forgot; and that we might all agree to sit down together as humble, loving disciples, at the feet of our common Master, to hear his word, to imbibe his Spirit, and to transcribe his life in our own!”1
When Whitefield was age twenty, while reading two outstanding Christian books, he felt the barriers between Christians of other persuasions and himself dissolve. He wrote that “the partition wall of bigotry and sect-religion was soon broken down in my heart; for, as soon as the love of God was shed abroad in my soul, I loved all of whatsoever denomination, who loved the Lord Jesus in sincerity of heart.”2
Reading forward into Whitefield’s journal, his manner of life proves that such a change occurred. He seems to sigh over his journal page continually with remarks such as these:
2-25-1738 - “Oh, when will that time come, when all differences about externals shall be taken away, and we all with one heart, and one mouth glorify our Lord Jesus Christ!”
2-27-1738 - “I exhorted them to love and unity, and not to let a little difference about a few externals occasion any narrow-spiritedness to arise in their hearts….What infinite mischief have needless divisions occasioned in the Christian world!”
3-7-1738 - “What a pity it is, Christ’s seamless coat should be rent in pieces on account of things in themselves purely indifferent!”
5-8-1738 “I find there are many divisions amongst the inhabitants [of Savannah, GA]; but God, I hope, will make me an instrument of composing them. Grant this, O Lord, for Thy dear Son’s sake!”
In January, 1739, he was back in England. One day (Jan. 19) he “spent the afternoon in visiting some Dissenting brethren, who are Christians indeed.” Then the following week, he had time for “…three Quakers, who afterwards came and paid me a visit, and glorified God on my behalf.”
Whitefield met the Welsh preacher, Howell Harris, and says this about him: “He is of a most catholic spirit, loves all who love our Lord Jesus Christ.” Indeed, Whitefield noted that in Wales itself “there seems to be a noble spirit gone out…. What inclines me strongly to think so is, that the partition wall of bigotry and party-zeal is broken down, and ministers and teachers of different communions, join with one heart and one mind to carry on the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. The Lord make all the Christian world thus minded!” (Mar. 7, 1739)
After spending an “agreeable” evening with some Quakers, Whitefield remarked, “How much comfort do those lose who converse with none but such as are of their own communion!” (May 14, 1739) Four days later he dined with several of the Moravian Church and received a letter from a field-preacher of the Scots Church.
On June 19 alone, his social life ran something like this: “Breakfasted, dined, prayed, and sang hymns with ___, a dissenting minister; was visited by some Quakers, and, in the afternoon waited upon ___, a Baptist teacher, who unknown to me, had sent a horse to fetch me from London.”
On Nov. 5, 1739, he spent time individually with a Church of England churchwarden, a Presbyterian minister, a Baptist teacher, and finally with two Quakers.
Back in America, he preached at German Town near Philadelphia, PA, from a balcony to over six thousand weeping people (November 27, 1939). After his two-hour sermon he “had sweet converse, and felt a blessed union and communion with many souls, though of different nations and professions.” He observed, “there are no less than fifteen denominations of Christians in German Town, and yet all agree in one thing, that is, to hold Jesus Christ as their Head, and to worship Him in spirit and in truth. I talked with one who had been banished from Switzerland for preaching Christ.”
Perhaps it would be a violation of fair usage to list all the times he manifested his “catholic spirit” in extending his hand to various Christians. In his journal cited below, I made margin notations on the following pages with the word “unity” – see pp. 362, 412, 414, 419, 440, and 458.
And how was he received by people of all denominations? Here are just a few evidences of his widening circle of friends.
In Bristol, England, May, 1737, “Persons of all denominations flocked to hear.”
Shortly afterwards, “this [printed] sermon sold well to persons of all denominations, and was dispersed very much both at home and abroad.” The sermon title was On the Nature and Necessity of our Regeneration or New Birth in Christ Jesus.
April 18, 1739 – “…for almost every day persons of all denominations come unto me, telling how they intercede in my behalf. And it shall now be my particular business, wherever I go, to bring all the children of God, notwithstanding their differences, to rejoice together. How dare we not converse with those who have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?”
May 24, 1739 – in Northhampton, England, “…nothing confirms me more that God intends to work a great work upon the earth, than to find how His children of all denominations everywhere wrestle in prayer for me.”
May 26, 1939 – “It much comforts me, wherever I go, to see so many of God’s children, of all communions, come and wish me good luck in the Name of the Lord.”
Back in America, in Rhode Island, he spoke in a church holding three thousand people and noted that “it was more than filled in the afternoon, persons of all denominations attending” (Sept. 15, 1740).
Perhaps the fingerprints of George Whitefield can be seen in the religious tolerance our American mindset. His and Wesley’s leadership certainly provided a steadying hand to fervent followers. One hundred years earlier, a writer’s portrayal of religious life in England describes it as an “abundant amount of sectarian activity in James’s reign” with little toleration:3
People, being in distraction, have runne from one sect and error to another, from separation to separation, dividing themselves into many several sects, to Anabaptistry, wherein (againe) are divided into five or six sundry sects, each hatefully condemning others, holding (also) many dangerous errors, some to expect new Apostles, some to the heresy of Arian….4
No wonder Whitefield and Wesley lamented the fragmentation and sought the greater good of the church through unity. We would do well to imitate them.
1John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament, Preface (1754), para. 9. Quoted in Revival, Faith as Wesley Lived It by Adam Hamilton. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2014, p. 27.
2George Whitefield’s Journal, edited by Iain Murray. London: Banner of Truth Trust, 1965, p. 62.
3Allan Gravely, The English Seekers: 1643-1656. Master’s thesis, University of Alabama, 1982, p. 47. (Soon to be published under the title Roger Williams and the Search for New Apostles amidst the “Ruins” of the Reformation Churches: The Continental and English Seekers, 1530 to 1660.)
4Edmond Jessop, Discovery of the Errors of the English Anabaptists. London: W. Jones, 1623, p. 88.